St. Landry democrat., 1887-11-26
TIE AFFECTIONS OF ANTS.
Curious Traits of Insect That MimiCs
Man in Social Arran ngements.


Sir John Lubbock, who has made a
study of the habits of ants, in a recent
lecture said that ants were of much in
terest to the human race, because they
reproduce in so many respects the con-
ditions of our own lives. When we con-
slider their habits, their social organiza-
tion, their large communities, their road
ways, their possession of domestic SER
wants, and sometimes, he was sorry to
say, of slaves, it must be admitted that
they had very fair claim to rank in in
teliigenCe next to man. 1t was difficult
to determine whether ants could be said
to have any actual affection for one
another He related number of expert
ments he had conducted to as
certain the truth in this respect.
An ant which had injured her legs was
Another ant that had injured her an
tcnnp in coming out of chrysalis. being
found by an ant of another nest, was
attacked, and it was with difficulty that
the lecturer rescued her; but being after
ward found by an ant belonging to the
same nest, this ant, after carefully exam
her up in her mouth and carried her
back to her nest Nobody had ever yet
seen a quarrel between two ants of the
same nest In one of his nests he had
number of workers which lived to the
age of seven years. They gradually
diminished in number. and at last only
two remained. These two lived together
for two years, and then died within a
Of
to be no external cause for this, and he
was disposed to think that the survivor
felt the shock of her companions death.
Sir John said that he had now queen
ant which had lived in one of his nests
ever since 1874. She was even then full
grown. and must, therefore, now be
nearly fourteen years old. She was, he
believed, the oldest insect on record, and
though he regretted to say that, she was
not so active as formerly, and was nova
little stiff in the joints. Still, as far as
he was able to observe, she was in per-
feet health and he had every hope thas
he would continue to enjoy the pleasure
of her society for some time. He had
tried experiments to see if ants were
capable of mutual recognition. He
kept ants of the same nest apart
for year and a half, and ON
putting them together again he found
that there was mutual recognition. He
was afraid a great many men forget their
friends in a much less time. DESTROYS
to know by what signal, password OK
other means ants made their recognition
he reduced one set to insensibilitv.
Chloroform not answering the purpose,
he determined to make them drunk. He
found that the only way to make an ant
drunk was, not by enticing her to take
poisonous spirit, but by putting her into
the Whiskey, He then made the sober
ants approach the drunken ants. At first
the former did not seem to know how to
deal with the latter At last one
Of the sober ants took up one
Of the drunkards belonging to a
different nest, looked at it, walked
slowly to the end of the table, and drop
ped her into some water that was there.
The stranger ants were all taken and
brown into the water, while the ants
belonging to the same nest were carried
back, where he had no doubt they soon
recovered from the effects of the drink.
This experiment proved that ants did
lot recognize one another by any pass
yord but it also proved that their fac
llty of recognition was unerring. The
ecturer proceeded to sketch the senses
md moral qualities of ants, and gave
numerous illustrations of their affection
lmOng themselves, their hostility to-
ward ants belonging to other nests, and
heir powers of Accommodation.